About Albuquerque's Vista Del Norte

In case you are an investor or realtor specializing in short sales here are some useful hints to preparing the BPO (Broker Price Opinion). All Sold Comps should be less than 6 months old, of similar size and in similar condition and located within 1-mile radius of subject. According to the instructions found with the Fannie Mae BPO form all line item adjustments should not exceed 10% of the sold or list price of the comp. Total Net Adjustments should not exceep 15% of the sold or list price of the comp; and the Total Adjusted Sales Price should not exceed 25% of the sold or list price of the comp. I don't do adjustments because I am not a licensed appraiser (just trying to lower liability issues). Repairs should be estimated and itemized to bring the subject property from its present "as is" condition to average marketable condition for the neighborhood. Do not include repairs needd to bring the property into a rehabbed condition (new carpet & paint throughout) unless all comps hve been completely rehabbed.

The "as is" and "as repaired" values should reflect a 90 to 120 day marketing period regardless of the normal marketing time in the area. (If the normal marketing period in the area exceeds 90 to 120 days, values should be adjusted down. If the normal marketing period in the area is less than 90 to 120 days, values should be adjusted accordingly). These instructions were summarized from the Fannie Mae BPO website. If you want to read them all, Google Fannie Mae BPO.

I am a realtor who invests in short sale properties. I primarily work with realtors. I have a method I use for realtors that makes them more money than they can on their own selling short sales and I take all of the hard work and do it myself. Anyone in the Albuquerque NM area interested in learning more about my process, feel free to contact me and I will buy you a cup of coffee or lunch and explain the entire process.

I am one of those nerdy types who tries to stay educated with what is happening in our economy. I try to follow the market to keep my business growing. Although there are times I probably should stay away from the news because it doesn't always keep me in the best frame of mind. This morning I turned on Bloomberg news and the CEO of Goldman Sachs was speaking to a group of investors. Following his speech, during the question and answer period he was interrupted by a protestor. Couldn't really hear what her complaint was because security moved her out before she said much. However, by the response by the CEO, I get she wasn't very happy about the bail out of the financial industry. the CEO (Blankfein) did acknowledge the anger expressed and said that he gets how angry tax payers are at his industry and while he felt that the protestors method of delivery was not appropriate he understood the anger. He did talk in favor of more regulation of the industry and that compensation packages for executives and others should be tied to performance of the company not just individual performance (what a concept) - ha.

I have been an accountant for too many years to admit to and I always believed that compensation was tied not only to my performance but to how well the company was doing. I guess this is new to the financial industry. Blankfein also was asked about how they have changed their meetings outside of their corporate headquarters. He said that a year ago were he to go to a meeting with a bunch of investors, he would have had the meeting in the morning and golf in the afternoon. Now they have the meeting in the morning and go back to work in the afternoon. It does feel like some of what main street is so angry about is getting through to at least some of these financial companies.

If the message is finally hitting the financial industry of more controls and less waste, maybe we are about to make a turn in this economy. But, I am not changing my business model yet.

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to the lowest level on record for the second consecutive week after the Federal Reserve launched a new effort to assist the staggering U.S. housing market.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 4.78 percent this week, from 4.85 percent last week.

It was the lowest in the history of Freddie Mac's survey, which dates back to 1971. Rates are down by more than a full percentage point from a year ago.

People are refinancing their homes at a record rate but lenders are still being pretty picky about who they loan money to, consumers need good credit scores, 620 and above to qualify for the best rates. Despite these great rates, I am still having a hard time getting buyers off the fence. I may have to start looking for incentives of my own to start offering to buyers. So to speak, my own stimulus package.

Yesterday I had a third appointment with a prospective short seller. The first appointment was more than a month ago. I gave them a packet of documents (samples of hardship letters, a financial statement etc) and told them time was of the essence. They were already five months behind in payments but the bank had not notified them of a foreclosure YET. After several unanswered calls and a week or so later, they gave me a couple of the documents and promised to get the rest to me within the next day or so. Again several calls later to set up another appointment to get the remainder of the documents, another week or so goes by and a few more documents are delivered. Finally yesterday and I got all of the documents needed (they filled out the financial statement while we were meeting) and the next question out of their mouths was when did I expect to have bank approval.

This is definately a challenging niche I have chosen for myself. I suspect that the same behavior I described above is what has lead to some of these clients personal challenges. Oh well, on to dealing with the bank. I am sure they will be much more organized and cooperative and get everything back to me in a timely way.

Housing prices fall

The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, measuring housing prices in 20 representative cities across America, fell for the 30th straight month in January, bringing house prices down to 2003 levels. And this time it actually set a record, falling 19% from January 2008. "There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard and Poor's. "Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path, with...nine of the MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) falling more than 20% in the last year." According to Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research, home prices won't start advancing until the overall economy picks up.

Home bargains galore

In total, prices have plunged 29.1% nationally since they peaked during the second quarter of 2006, but that of course doesn't figure in individual cities, where prices are more varied. Dallas is the least affected at 4.9%, and Phoenix lost the most, at 48.5% from its peak. All 20 index cities were in negative territory, but the biggest losers are Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco, and San Diego -- each losing more than 40%. The bad, and good, news is that the rate of decline has picked up recently. As Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research says, ""Arguably, that's just what we need to drive up sales activity and reduce inventory.

In New Mexico, the governor signed a bill giving first time homebuyers a $6800 interest free loan to use for a down payment which can be paid back using the $8500 tax credit available from the feds. This is for first time home buyers and is available through MFA. It is a great year to buy a home.